SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 73 



In the United States, much of this system would be inappUcable and 

 unprofitable. Here wool, instead of mutton, is the principal object. Even 

 in the Southern States, where the climate would render the English sys- 

 tem practicable, the expense of producing either of these articles, by win- 

 ter turnip feeding and folding, would add so much to its cost that it could 

 not profitably compete with that grown in the ordinary manner. Tlie 

 same remark applies to the relative expense of the two systems of manur- 

 ing. A constant repletion of rich succulent food, like turnips, would sen- 

 sibly increase the amount of manure, and, by folding, it would be moie 

 evenly distributed. But neither of these considerations would begin to 

 offset against the increased expense, in a country where good lands are so 

 cheap and bread-stufts so low. Besides, no good, but, on the other hand, 

 positive injury, would result from thus annuaWy J'attcning "store"* sheep, 

 kept for the production of wool and for breeding.t 



The system of improving poor lands in the Northern and Eastern States 

 by sheep husbandry, is mainly by summer pasturage. The droppings of 

 the sheep gradually enrich them,| and' consequently increase their herb- 

 age. Thus, in a few years, poor and scanty pastures are converted into 

 rich, productive ones. This might be far more rapidly done by giving 

 these pastures also the winter manure of the sheep, made in the feeding 

 yards. But it is generally thought more prcjfitable to give the winter ma- 

 nure to the richer tillage lands, which are made to supply the grain and 

 hay of the farm. The light pasture lands are thus kept permanently in 

 pasture or are only plowed, by the provident, at very long intervals. This 

 t-ystem is rendered necessary, or, at all events, convenient, by the topo- 

 gj-aphical features of our farms. Here the poorer and lighter are generally 

 tlie higher and more broken lands, which are less convenient ol' aration, 

 and for the hauling on of manure, or the hauling off' of crops. 



In the Southern States, on lands which now yield even a smallish sup- 

 ply of esculent grasses, the northern system is all that is necessarily re- 

 quired. Those grasses will every year increase, and the land will be grad- 

 ually fertilized, by the dro})pings of the sheep, without a cent's expendi- 

 ture on it of any kind ; and every particle of herbage will be turned to its 

 most profitable account, by being converted into wool, mutton and ma- 

 nure. 



But where there is not sufficient existing verdure to form the germ, so 

 to speak, of a future good pasture — or, in other words, to support a suffi- 

 cient number of sheep to convert it, within a reasonable time, into good 

 pasturage — some other course must be adopted. Proper plowing and 

 seeding, simply, will, I have not a doubt, be found adequate in a great 

 many instances where it would hardly be suspected. It is very natural to 

 take it for granted that a soil, not spontaneously producing the grasses, is 

 not fertile enough to produce them, even if properly sown upon it. But 

 experience has amply demonstrated the contrary in several of the North- 

 western States. There are various causes, besides a want of fertility, 

 which may produce such nudity ; but this is not the place to enter upon 

 speculations on this topic. Two very common and obvious causes are too 

 great looseifess or compactness of the surface, which prevents seeds from 

 taking root, especially in a dry, hot climate. Plowing would always loosen 



* This convenient word is piovinc-ia]Iy applied, in the Northern and Eastern States, to sheep and swine 

 which are to he k«pt over the year, to breed from (and the former to produce wool), aa contradistinguiahed 

 from those which are fattening for slaughter. 



t This point will acnin be adverted to. It is sufficient now to say that breeding-ewes, if brought to a Baglj 

 Wnte of fatness, raise fewer lambs. The lambs are bom weak, and are very apt to perish. There arc; ala« 

 other objections. 



\ Aided by an cicasional top-dressing with gypsum. 



K 



